John K. Rhodes of Fonthill, Ont., recalls that during the German bombing raids on England in 1940 he was a lieutenant in the West Novas and spent many nights on church towers and rooftops watching for signals that enemy agents were supposed to be flashing to guide the Luftwaffe to special targets. Rhodes continues:

One night, I was on watch with a Home Guard corporal, who asked: “Do you think ‘itler will come?”

I said I thought Hitler would be pretty dumb if he didn’t invade because we had precious little to stop him.

“No, ‘e won’t come, sir,” the corporal said. “The people ‘ere wouldn’t stand for it.”